Feelings flow on the Web

PINELLAS PARK - David Bayly is a pastor from a church in Toledo who arrived in Pinellas County last week because he believes deeply that Terri Schiavo should be allowed to live.

To communicate with his congregation back in Ohio, at Christ the Word Presbyterian Church in America, he has been making regular entries to his blog, found on the World Wide Web at http://timbayly.worldmagblog.com/timbayly He has written out thoughts on the "cynical arrogance of Judge James Whittemore" and filed firsthand accounts about the scene he has witnessed outside Woodside Hospice, where Terri Schiavo lives.

Bayly is just one example of the increasing number of people discussing the Schiavo case on personal Web logs, or "blogs." A great number of bloggers are outraged that Terri Schiavo's feeding tube has been disconnected: A site at www.blogsforterri.com links readers to nearly 300 like-minded blogs, including such examples as Believer Blog, Jews For Life, My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy and What Attitude Problem?

Some bloggers take an opposing view, such as ALAS a blog at www.amptoons.com/blog. The most detailed legal updates on the case may be those found at a blog called Abstract Appeal, at www.abstractappeal.com. A bioethics blog can be found at http://blog.bioethics.net

Polls: Congress out of line

About seven in 10 Americans say Congress inappropriately intervened in the case of a brain-damaged woman whose relatives disagree over whether she should be allowed to die, according to a new poll. About six in 10 said they agreed with the decision by a Florida judge to remove the feeding tube from 41-year-old Terri Schiavo, according to two polls out Monday.

About two-thirds in an ABC News poll said the political leaders who are trying to keep Schiavo alive are more concerned with using her case for political advantage than with her or the principles involved in keeping her alive.

Almost that many in a CNN-USA Today-Gallup poll, nearly six in 10, said they think the feeding tube should be removed and felt they would remove it for a child or spouse in the same condition.

The ABC News poll of 501 adults was taken Sunday night and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points. The CNN-USA Today-Gallup poll of 909 adults was taken Friday through Sunday and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

International headlines

Here are some headlines about the Schiavo case that appeared on newspaper Web sites around the world:

U.S. Rep. C.W. Bill Young was in the hospital on Monday, unable to attend the House's extraordinary early morning vote to try to keep Terri Schiavo alive.

A longtime congressman, Young, 74, entered the Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., March 15 for a urinary tract infection. He was later released, but returned after developing a high fever and other complications.

Young, an Indian Shores Republican, who underwent quadruple bypass surgery in 1996, said doctors will conduct a test on his heart today to see if he sustained any damage. He expects to leave the hospital as early as today.

Young supported the bill that sent the Schiavo case to federal court in Tampa, but said his doctors refused to let him go vote.

Staff writers Curtis Krueger, Chris Tisch and Anita Kumar contributed to this report, which also used information from the Associated Press.